{"id":492965,"date":"2026-06-24T08:31:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T08:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/492965\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T08:31:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T08:31:09","slug":"shane-jones-says-kaitaia-mill-owners-never-asked-for-government-help-amid-confusion-fears-over-operations-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/492965\/","title":{"rendered":"Shane Jones says Kait\u0101ia mill owners never asked for Government help amid confusion, fears over operation\u2019s future"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe\u2019re disappointed that no buyer has been found for Northland Mill but there is still a window for central Government to step up and push for a solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Juken'sJuken’s Northland Mill in Kait\u0101ia. Photo \/ Yolisa Tswanya<\/p>\n

Jones, a New Zealand First minister, said the closure of the mill would impact the local Kait\u0101ia community and forestry sector.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s enormously disappointing that this foreign company has decided to make this decision and close down<\/a>,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve been a feature of the Far North economy for a very long time, but they\u2019ve never once reached out to me as the Regional Development Minister, seeking a rescue package or wanting to maintain the ongoing functioning of the business, with some sort of package from the Crown.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones said there appeared to be \u201cconsiderable confusion\u201d between potential buyers and the parent company because he understood negotiations for the sale of the mill were ongoing.<\/p>\n

One potential buyer could be Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown<\/a>, who says he is part of a group of people pondering the idea of buying both the Northland Mill and the larger Triboard Mill next door.<\/p>\n

He told the Herald the situation was complex and he was unsure if the whole mill was closing or just a smaller part of it, but that he still believed the option to buy the mill was on the table.<\/p>\n

\"ShaneShane Jones (right), with Wayne Brown (left) and chair of the working group that in 2020 proposed moving Auckland port operations to Northland, with local businessman Barry Trass. Photo \/ Tania Whyte<\/p>\n

Coverdale, who has been supporting several workers that could be affected by the closure, said there were a few potential options, such as following what a mill in Gisborne did where it closed down before being purchased a year later or by getting a \u201clifeline\u201d from the Government.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot all hope is lost, and it\u2019s now time to wait to see if this Government will offer the mill workers a lifeline or if we\u2019re set to lose yet another important wood manufacturing facility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Julia Gabel is a Wellington-based political reporter. She joined the Herald in 2020 and has most recently focused on data journalism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe\u2019re disappointed that no buyer has been found for Northland Mill but there is still a window for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":492966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[49653,534,23607,13916,138,651,19061,124,170,28164,2082,3273,266,305,5838,232,2176,18839,7243,6722,13631,111,139,69,17286,26859,1523,9769,22367,6046,5914,8527,312,7228,107023,5977],"class_list":["post-492965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-affecting","tag-amid","tag-approach","tag-asked","tag-business","tag-close","tag-confusion","tag-could","tag-development","tag-fears","tag-for","tag-future","tag-government","tag-have","tag-help","tag-jobs","tag-jones","tag-kaitia","tag-mill","tag-minister","tag-never","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-operation","tag-operations","tag-over","tag-owners","tag-package","tag-potential","tag-regional","tag-rescue","tag-says","tag-shane","tag-signalled","tag-which"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}